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May 19, 2010

Last week, I volunteered at the City Solve Urban Race downtown. This was basically a city-wide scavenger hunt/race, with proceeds going to Colorado Youth At Risk. Immediately upon arriving at the Ginn Mill, I was put to work stuffing 300 goody bags.

Let me tell you: when a fun event like this is going on, you want to be a part of it in any way...even if that means stuffing goody bags. The bubbling excitement in the atmosphere made it worth waking up early on a Saturday.

After the event started, I was handed a bag full of envelopes with a clue inside. Along with two other volunteers, we headed to the first secret location, making sure none of the participants were trailing us.

We waited eagerly for the rushing crowd to find us. However, an angry homeless guy found us first.

He asked if we had money. Seeing as how none of us had anything--except the 300 envelopes--we apologized and said no. I won't relay exactly what he said then, suffice to say it was a steady stream of "fuck" in nearly every possible form.

One thing he said that actually offended me was when he started yelling, "That's right...just keep using your momma's credit card to get by." If I were feeling friskier and thought my words might actually have an impact, I would have explained that I haven't relied on "my momma's credit card" since I was 16 years old. And then I would have kicked him in the crotch. But not really, because at that point, I'm just beating up a crazy old man.

Though it peeved me, I couldn't blame him. Obviously, this guy had just as many preconceived notions and assumptions about us as we did about him.

When he asked who was making money off of this event and we explained it was for charity, that just made him madder. "So, what? You are all doing this for free?!" Nods all around. "Fuck that. I don't believe it."

And when the hopeful but naive, young volunteer offered him a granola bar, I thought he might actually attack us. Nevertheless, while she was near tears and wishing to help the angry old man, I was callously taking pictures for my blog. The difference between us...

So, aside from the intermittent verbal attacks by the man, it was a fun moment: watching hundreds of costumed folks rushing toward us, handing out the envelopes, observing while they all pulled out their phones to Google for answers...

After the crowd dispersed, I headed back to the Ginn Mill for my next task: folding 300 t-shirts and manning the front door. After a total race time of between 1.5 to 3.5 hours, the races began trickling back in, where I jotted down their times.

FYI: tall photographers make me look like a little person.

Overall, a very fun and exciting event, and one I hope to participate in this coming September.

Oh, and a quick mention. Aside from the two crappy, low-quality photos that I took with my phone, all the pictures I've posted were taken by Stu Kennedy. He's a very talented local photographer who also works with Colorado Music Buzz. Click on his name to check out the rest of the photos from that day. Lots of great costumes!